Greetings from the AIAO Committee on the Environment (COTE). On this Earth Day, we are motivated and inspired to build upon the spirit of collaboration and commitment that brought AIA members together from across the State of Oregon to discuss climate action and social justice during this extraordinary year.
COTE is an AIA Knowledge Community working for architects, allied professionals, and the public to achieve climate action and climate justice through design. We believe that design excellence is the foundation of a healthy, sustainable, and equitable future. Our work promotes design strategies that empower all AIA members to realize the best social and environmental outcomes with the clients and the communities they serve. We are working to reframe how we define good design, with an understanding that sustainability and design excellence are inextricably linked. We are championing the AIA Framework for Design Excellence – formerly known as the COTE Top Ten – as a robust design resource and educational tool that highlights the connections between equitable communities, ecosystems, water, economy, energy, wellness, resources, future adaptation and resilience, and post-occupancy evaluation and engagement. We need all hands on deck to help us reach this goal, so please join us!
“The Framework for Design Excellence represents the defining principles of good design in the 21st century. Comprised of 10 principles and accompanied by searching questions, the Framework seeks to inform progress toward a zero-carbon, equitable, resilient, and healthy built environment. These are to be thoughtfully considered by designer and client at the initiation of every project and incorporated into the work as appropriate to the project scope. The Framework is intended to be accessible and relevant for every architect, every client, and every project, regardless of size, typology, or aspiration. The Framework for Design Excellence challenges architects with a vision of what the profession strives to achieve, and the Toolkit provides practical resources to help all architects achieve the vision.”
Over the last year, AIA Oregon has incorporated the AIA Framework for Design Excellence into the annual design awards program. Each submission is now required to address a minimum of four of the ten principals of the Framework. In this way, AIAO is recognizing sustainability as an essential aspect of design excellence. COTE is eager to support this effort by providing training opportunities and by featuring presentations of exemplary projects during our monthly Digital Design Series events.
COTE is also excited to announce that we are joining forces with the AIA 2030 Working Group this year. We will focus our combined efforts on methods to track and meet the AIA 2030 Challenge through the AIA’s Design Data Exchange (DDX) framework reporting tool. Using project based, data-driven metrics to predict and measure energy performance, design excellence is tied to outstanding environmental performance.
You can now meet with AIAO COTE and the Architecture 2030 Working Group at our new time, noon to 1pm each third Thursday of the month. We will focus on reducing carbon and greenhouse gasses, while planning upcoming Digital Design Series presentations and the upcoming 2021 Green Champion Summit. It is not necessary to be an AIA member. You can register to attend the meetings HERE. If you have previously register to attend COTE meetings, please note that the zoom link has changed. Follow the link above to re-register.